


Cupcakes and (Minor) Catastrophes

by Anonymous



Category: The Haunting of Bly Manor (TV)
Genre: Cooking Lessons, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, POV Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:34:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27307087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Dani manages to convince Jamie to take baking lessons with her...Tooth-rotting fluff ensues.
Relationships: Dani Clayton/Jamie
Comments: 10
Kudos: 122
Collections: Anonymous





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prologue-ish for the next and final chapter which will be much longer lol

“Baking lessons.”

“Oh no,” Jamie shook her head vigorously. “Dani, _no-_ ”

“Oh, it would be perfect!” Dani moved around the kitchen island to hand her the flyer. “They had this hanging up at the library.”

“Dani. This is- _stop looking at me like that_ \- this does not sound like a good idea.” Jamie looked down at the pink paper. “Cooking lessons, one hour, bring your friends,” she read out loud.

“And _we’re friends_ ,” Dani explained brightly.

“Right.” Jamie looked up at her partner, amused. “And you think that you and I doing that would be a good idea. We’d be a complete mess, distracted by each other!”

“We’d be fine,” Dani giggled. “You can cook-”

“Barely-”

“And I don’t know much more than eggs and potatoes but I’d like to learn!” Dani protested, moving around the kitchen so that she could open the fridge and display its contents to Jamie. “You and I need to cook more. We only have a bottle of ketchup and yesterday’s leftovers in our fridge. I think we have some cans in our pantry but that’s it!”

“And wine,” Jamie reminded Dani with a grin.

“And wine. Fine. But we eat out a lot. Wouldn’t you like to…” Dani moved closer to Jamie, taking her hands. “Cook together? Spend more time with the process?” She made a tiny pout and widened her eyes pleadingly. “Don’t make me go alone, Jamie,”

Jamie raised an eyebrow and chuckled, pecking her partner on the lips. “Fine.”

“Thank you, love,” Dani kissed her back and moved off towards their bedroom. “It starts in thirty minutes!”

“Don’t wear anything you’re afraid of getting messy!” Jamie called back, shaking her head, amused. “And grab a coat, it’s freezing outside.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> <3
> 
> TW: a lil bit of implied/referenced homophobia (my bb sapphics don't deserve that but I cant go a hundred words without dabbing in some angst)
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> -El

“Today we’ll be making lemon yellow cupcakes,” the instructor said brightly, standing in front of the class of about twelve people split into pairs. They each had a table in front of them covered in bowls, baking tools and pre-measured and set ingredients. 

“Oh, so now we’ll know how to make ourselves cupcakes for dinner,” Jamie muttered playfully to Dani.

“Oh _shush_ , Jaims,” she replied with an endearing smile.

“First thing you do is beat the butter and sugar together in your bowl for about two minutes until it’s creamed,” said the instructor.

Jamie and Dani looked down at the bowl in front of them. 

“Do you want to do it?” Jamie offered the paddle to Dani, who accepted it and started to mix it awkwardly, peeking her tongue out absently as she worked.

It turned into a soft, creamy texture quickly so Jamie told Dani to stop so that it wouldn’t be overmixed.

“I miss Owen’s baking,” Jamie sighed as they waited for the rest of the class to finish mixing.

Dani nodded. “Me too. Remember those little fruit tarts he made that one time?” Dani hummed wistfully. “Those were amazing.”

“He’s doing fairly well for himself, I’ve heard. Has his own restaurant starting soon.”

“Oh. We should try and make it to the opening!” Dani exclaimed softly.

Jamie nodded in agreement. “We definitely should. I was thinking-”

“Now add in the eggs and vanilla extract, and beat for about a minute. In another bowl, mix your dry ingredients,” the instructor said from the front of the room.

Jamie trailed off after the interruption. “What was I saying?” she frowned.

Dani shrugged. “I’m not sure. Do you want to mix the eggs in this time?” she handed Jamie the paddle.

“Yea. Give it here,” she held her hand out and received it before frowning. “Oh, bloody… ”

“What?”

“I’m bad at cracking eggs.”

“That’s the one thing I _can_ do,” Dani giggled. “Let me try, Jaims.” She reached her arm across Jamie, grabbing the two eggs and placing them in front of her.

And then she frowned, and stared at them.

After a second of nothing happening, Jamie leaned on her elbows and looked sideways at her partner. “Sooooo, are you going to-”

“Yes, I will, I will. Uh.” Dani bit her lip and grabbed one before prepping it against the side of the bowl. She raised it to crack it, but faltered before hitting it against the bowl.

“I _thought you said you could break eggs_ -”

“I can, I _swear_ -”

“Mmhm.”

“ _Shush_ , Jaims. You’re not good at it either,” Dani squeaked indignantly. 

“Dan-” Jamie bit her lip when Dani hit the egg against the counter before proceeding to clean out the inside of the egg into the bowl with her fingers, spilling tiny pieces of eggshell into the mixture. 

“You’re so _messy_ ,” Jamie giggled as Dani tried and failed to spoon the eggshells out of the bowl. “Come ‘ere, love,” She put her arms around Dani and placed her hands on top of Dani’s, gently guiding her to crack the second egg. With them working together, they managed to crack the second egg without too much of a disaster on their table.

Jamie softly rested her chin on Dani’s shoulder as Dani put in the extract and began to mix. “We did that better together,” Dani commented with a smile. 

“Yeah?” Jamie smirked. “What a surprise.”

The instructor was sending them both an odd look, so Jamie moved from her comfortable place on Dani’s shoulder to stand back next to Dani.

“Remember that time we were trying to repaper the bathroom walls-”

“And I foolishly insisted on trying to do it myself and not bother you; yes, yes I do,” Jamie chuckled.

“Made a mess, didn’t you,” Dani commented with a smile.

“Bloody large one,” Jamie scoffed. “I had glue stuck in my hair for _weeks_.”

“I told you you’d need help to reach the top of the wall,” Dani said.

“Yeah, well. Tried to do somethin’ nice, yeah?” Jamie made an endearing chuckle. “Oh well. It did turn out lookin’ good once you and I worked together on it.”

“Very.” 

“Now everyone needs to slowly mix their dry and wet ingredients,” the instructor said. “Put your mixer on low and mix in lemon juice, ½ cup of milk, and lemon zest.”

“Lemon juice, lemon juice…” Jamie muttered, looking over their cluttered table to find the ingredient. “Here.” She handed the yellow bottle to Dani.

“How much do we put in?”

Jamie blinked at her wife. “I don't know. Just, uh, squirt it? A couple of times. I’m sure a little goes a long way.” She laughed quietly to herself. “Imagine if Owen heard me say ‘just squirt it a couple of times’. That man and his precise measurements.” 

Dani giggled and squeezed a couple of drops into the mixture. “Does that look like enough?” She scrunched her nose up adorably.

“Just add a little bit more. Worst comes to worst, we can feed these to the Lincolns next door. God, they’re the worst.”

“Oh come on, they’re not that bad, just a little old and stiff.” Dani laughed as she poured in the milk. “Remember that time they let us babysit their cat?”

“Mixie?” Jamie scoffed. “She scratched up my arms-”

“-because she liked you-”

“And tried to _murder_ me-”

“-oh jeez, Jamie. She was trying to be nice,” Dani giggled.

“Define nice, love. In my experience, nice means doing nice things and not _gouging your claws into another’s skin_.”

Dani muffled a laugh with her hand as the instructor shot them a weird look before beginning to explain how to put the cupcakes in the pan.

They followed the instructions properly, though when Dani leaned down to put the cupcakes in the microwave-oven Jamie gently hip bumped her and wrapped her arm around Dani’s waist, pulling her up once the cupcakes were in the oven. That earned a giggle from her wife and a very obvious stare from the instructor that neither of them failed to notice.

“She keeps, uh. Looking at us.”

“I think she’s just jealous,” Jamie said with a squeeze of her hand in Dani’s before letting go. “Now what?”

“Now for buttercream.” Dani mixed the ingredients together while Jamie hunted the surface of the table for a piping bag and tip. 

After getting a hold of a textured tip she turned around to show it to Dani and was instead met with a glob of yellow icing smeared onto her cheek. 

“ _Poppins_!” Jami scoffed in surprise and wiped it off, chuckling at Dani’s uncontrollable giggles. “Alright, then. C’mere!” She swiftly swiped her thumb through the buttercream and left a streak of yellow on Dani’s cheek, causing her wife to squeal in delighted surprise. “Yeah. See how you like it.”

“Oh, retaliation, I see,” Dani replied in mock offense. “Okay then… take this, Jaims!” She scooped her entire hand into the bowl of buttercream and planted her covered hand in the middle of Jamie’s face. “Oh, wow, that’s more than I meant to use,” she apologized, bursting out into laughter.

“You’re a _mess_ , love.” Jamie joined her in giggling and started to wipe the mess off of her face with a napkin.

“Excuse me, you two.” The instructor had made her way over to the both of them with a sour frown on her face. “You’re disrupting the class with your food fight. I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

They both blinked at her. Dani could see Jamie barely holding in a laugh. “I’m very sor- We’re very sorry for disrupting the class,” Dani apologized.

“No we’re not,” Jamie chuckled before seeing the look on Dani’s face. “I mean yeah. We’re very sorry.”

“ _Leave._ ”

Dani frowned, grabbed her bag and left, Jamie trailing behind with both of their coats.

“I can’t believe we got kicked out,” Dani sighed when they both were outside of the building. 

Jamie shrugged. “We were having fun, that’s all. She was bein’ a bit stuck up about it, yeah?”

Dani nodded but continued to have a disappointed look on her face as they began to walk home. The streets were fairly empty so they walked with their shoulders almost touching. A gesture that seemed fairly normal to others but meant everything to each other.

That’s how most things were for them.

Jamie nudged her with her shoulder. “Hey, I’m sorry it didn’t work out. I will go with you to another one, promise. I had fun. Even activities like baking are fun when it’s with you,” she said honestly.

“No, it’s not that. It’s… the lady was being weird from the beginning, giving us odd looks and all that.”

“Well,” Jamie sighed heavily. “I think she might’ve noticed that we weren’t exactly just friends, love.”

“Yeah.”

They walked together in silence for a few minutes before Dani sighed. “Sometimes I forget, you know? I get so caught up in you and I and... I wish we could love each other in public without worrying about homophobia. Like the tiny glares we get… even just small things like that bother me. I wish they didn't.”

“Yea. Well, they’re all wankers, alright? Don’t worry about them.” Jamie intertwined her hand with Dani’s and squeezed, her finger brushing over Dani’s ring. “We’ll know, remember?”

“We’ll know,” Dani replied, a smile dancing on her lips. “Also, we’re not _horrible_ at all cooking. We’re good at salads!” 

Jamie laughed. “Well, true. Though it’s only November, the lettuce plants are just losing their flowers.”

“Okay, then we’ll stop by the market on the way home. Get some more of those asiatic lily seeds you love that they always have this time of year.” Dani smiled at Jamie, one of her sweet smiles that crinkled the edges of her eyes and somehow made Jamie fall in love with her even more every time. 

“Yeah, okay.” Jamie smiled back.

“You still have icing on your cheek,” Dani pointed out softly, stopping them on the sidewalk.

“Where?” 

Dani poked her cheek where a streak of yellow remained from their mess in the baking class. 

Jamie feigned cluelessness. “I don’t know- where on my cheek?”

Dani giggled. “Honestly, Jaims.” She wiped it off with her thumb and then cleaned her thumb into a napkin in her bag. She checked briefly, and when seeing nobody close to them, she gave a quick peck to Jamie’s cheek before she took her hand and resumed walking, tugging a grinning Jamie along.

Noticing the empty street they turned into, Dani leaned her head on Jamie’s shoulder and sighed, her nose freezing from the harsh cold air. “I wonder what happened to our cupcakes,” she wondered mournfully. “You think the instructor ate them?”

“If she did, I hope they taste terribly.”

“Jamie!” Dani let out a short laugh. “That’s mean.”

“I am not taking that back.”

Dani giggled and buried her nose into Jamie’s shoulder. “I hope they tasted gross to her too,” she admitted softly.

“Knowing our baking skills, they probably did. Remember the time you were helping Owen and Hannah bake cookies and you put salt instead of sugar?”

Dani burst into embarrassed giggles at the memory. “Yes! The poor children. Flora had a fit.”

“We really should’ve tested them first.”

“Hannah said she liked them,” Dani defended.

“Hannah didn’t eat!” Jamie pointed out.

“Oh, right.” Dani sighed as they came up to the flower shop and Jamie pulled her keys from her coat pocket. “I miss her. I hope she’s doing okay, wherever she is.”

“I do too.” Jamie unlocked the door and let Dani in before entering and closing it behind her. The room was warm and toasty compared to the frosty air outside. Jamie unlocked the second door that led to the storage room and the stairs to their loft. They both took off their shoes before climbing the steps. “I think Hanna is doing okay, wherever she is.”

“If anything, Hannah Grose, one of the kindest and bravest people we ever knew, wouldn't deserve anything bad after she left Bly- after she passed.”

Jamie hummed somberly in response and removed Dani’s coat for her before shrugging off her own and hanging them both on the coat rack. 

Dani sat on the couch with a frown, the thought of Hannah weighing on her mind. _Where do people go after they die?_ she wondered. She and Jamie had tried to answer this question multiple times since Bly and had never come up with a definite conclusion. 

The one thing they knew for certain was what would happen to Dani after she would become the Lady in the Lake, and Jamie hated talking about that.

Dani could tell Jamie had gone off on a similar thought process, because she was leaning on their dining table and doing the little frown she did when the edges of her lips would turn down and she’d stare off into space.

So she did what they both always did- she brought up a topic for them both to latch onto like a lifesaver, so they could pretend like they were a completely normal couple that didn’t have a ticking clock over their heads.

“So, lemon cupcakes for dinner, then, yeah?”


End file.
